A packaging for surgical suture material is known from DE-AS 1 466 808 and from U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,401 which is parallel to it, in which a wall extending like a spiral rises from a base sheet. This wall defines a spiral-like thread duct which opens at its first end into a thread-removal area. A cover is provided for the thread duct. In order to remove surgical suture material, e.g. a surgical thread or a surgical thread to one end of which a surgical needle is secured, from the packaging, the end of the thread projecting into the thread-removal area or the surgical needle is grasped and the thread is then drawn out of the thread duct through the first end of the thread duct.
A drawback in the case of the previously known packaging for surgical suture material is that, when the surgical suture material is being removed, the thread can pull tight in the thread duct, in which it is guided over several spiral turns. Furthermore, in the attempt to remove it from the packaging, the thread can move inside the thread duct into the border area between the wall extending like a spiral and the cover, where a gap is frequently formed because of the production process. The thread can jam there, which makes the further removal of the surgical suture material much more difficult.